Busy Wednesday

Despite my sore knees, I had a busy day out of the house with friends. The day started off with an ex-pat wife coffee at Kirsten's in Weinheim. I hadn't been to one since September, so it was really fun to catch up with everyone and see the two new babies that had arrived in the last month. I knew just about everyone there so it was great to hang out and gab with the girls. We talked about the trials and tribulations of having a teenage girl about to turn 16 here, and her Albanian boyfriend that speaks five languages. I knew the age for drinking here is 16, but I didn't realize the consensual age for sex was 14- seems crazy. Good thing she has a great daughter with a decent head on here shoulders although she didn't get home until 3 am after a birthday party last weekend. I love that family and it was so fun to hear about the life of a teenage girl! Also we gabbed about trips. TJ and I travel quite a bit, but from talking to some of the ladies that have been here longer we have to go to Normandy. It was the favorite of a bunch of the families I hope we can squeeze it in! Then some of us talked about trips back to the US and how some things bothered us and other things we noticed that we might not have from living here...very interesting. I was having so much fun I lost track of time and had to go get Niki in Heidelberg for our afternoon in Mannheim.
I mentioned that I met Niki last weekend and she is here visiting the family that she stayed with when she was a foreign exchange student in high school. She is from Canada, but speaks 4 languages and is an English teacher in Japan. We just had lunch and did a bit of shopping. She had to do a bunch of shopping as she is tall and can't find a lot of things that fit in Japan since the clothes are so petite. So maybe I should move to Japan as I have the opposite problem! I just picked up some new running shoes (in hopes they would help my knees) and the third book in the Twilight series...you know the important things in life. It was fun to hang with another girl and I hope we can hang one more time before she goes home, but I did realize that I am going to miss my buddy Hazel while she is in South Africa this month.
When I got home it wasn't long before TJ returned from France with his usual stock of wine and cheese. This made for a great dinner of fromage, a fresh baguette, wine, and some strawberries I picked up from a vendor in Mannheim. Delicious!
TJ has a three day weekend as tomorrow is the German Labor Day. I hope to at least catch a movie and go out another night, but currently I am trying to convince TJ of taking a day trip somewhere. I will let you know what happens on Monday.
Auf Wiedersehen!